Thailand plans to put cannabis back on the list of illegal drugs and only allow young people to use it for medical and research purposes, Public Health Minister Somsak Thepsutin said today, on social networks.
The announcements follow a surprising policy U-turn this month from Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, who promised to decriminalize cannabis again by the end of the year following its decriminalization in 2022. Recreational use will be banned under new regulations, Somsak said, with licensing required for those who grow it, export it and possess it for medical and research purposes, although details of the permitting process are still being determined. in development.
“The permit system should not impose an unreasonable burden on the public,” he said in a Facebook post, adding that there would be a grace period for the public to adjust. Pro-cannabis groups protested Srettha’s decision, saying it could undermine business confidence after thousands of cafes and places to sell cannabis were set up after legalization, an industry expected to bring in as much as $1.2 billion. in 2025.
Thailand has long used marijuana to relieve pain and fatigue, and it is also used in traditional medicine and recipes. The Southeast Asian country first legalized cannabis for research and medical use in 2018 and removed the plant from the national drug list two years ago, allowing people to grow, sell and consume it.
The passengers of a Singapore Airlines flight who struck extreme turbulence on Asia suffered injury to the skull, the brain and the spine, said the chief of a Bangkok hospital today.
Twenty people remain in intensive care in the Thai capital, where the SQ321 flight made an emergency landing Tuesday after the territory of the high altitude test. A Boeing 777-300ER hit what an airline operator described as “sudden and extreme turbulence” in Myanmar, sending passengers and crew hurling some from the roof.
A 73-year-old British man died and 104 people were injured on the flight carrying 211 passengers and 18 crew from London to Singapore. Adinun Kittiratanapaibool, director of Bangkok’s Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital, said his staff treated six people for skull and brain injuries, 22 for spinal injuries and 13 for bone, nerve and other injuries.
He told reporters, “We have never treated people with such injuries caused by riots. The injured in the age of two to 83, he added.
A passenger said that people had been thrown into the cabin so violently that they put bumps on the ceiling during the drama at 11,300 m. Nine of the 16 Malaysians on board the plane are being treated at a Bangkok hospital, the country’s ambassador to Thailand told AFP.
“Five of them are in medical care and observation and one victim is in the general hospital. They are all in a stable condition,” said Jojie Samuel.
“But one of them is in a serious but stable condition. He suffered multiple injuries to his head, back and legs. He was part of the crew.
Flight waiver
Passenger reports continue to emerge after the incident in which the plane fell 1,800m in a few minutes, with little warning for many passengers to fasten their seat belts. “I fell to the ground, I did not understand what happened. I must have hit my head somewhere. Everyone was screaming on the plane. People were scared,” Josh Silverstone, a 24-year-old Briton on his way to the Indonesian holiday island of Bali, told reporters. “I turned on the WiFi on the plane I bought and texted my mum and said ‘I love you,'” he added yesterday after leaving hospital, where he was being treated for a head injury.
Singapore Airlines CEO Goh Choon Phong apologized for the “terrible experience” and expressed condolences to the family of the deceased. Pictures taken from inside the plane after it landed in Bangkok show the cabin in chaos, full of food, drinks and bags, with oxygen tanks hanging from the ceiling.
A relief flight yesterday took 131 passengers and 12 crew members to Singapore’s Changi Airport to continue their journey or return home.
